Austrian actor Maximilian Schell died of pneumonia on 1 February 2014 in Innsbruck, Austria. Born 8 December 1930 in Vienna, Austria, he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his role as a German defense attorney in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). He was also nominated for both awards for his roles in The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) and Julia (1977), and won another Golden Globe for his role in Stalin (1992).

Schell grew up in Switzerland, where his family settled to escape the Nazis after Germany’s 1938 annexation of Austria. IMDb says he is “the most successful German-speaking actor in English-language films since Emil Jannings, the winner of the first Best Actor Academy Award. Like Jannings, Schell won the Oscar, but unlike him, he was a dedicated anti-Nazi. Indeed, with the exception of Maurice Chevalier and Marcello Mastroianni, Schell is undoubtedly the most successful non-anglophone foreign actor in the history of American cinema.”

He began acting on the stage in 1952, and made his Hollywood debut in 1958 in the World War II film The Young Lions. He appeared in the film almost by accident: the producers had wanted to hire his sister, actress (and producer) Maria Schell (1926-2005), but lines of communication got crossed, and he was the one hired. His brother Carl (1927- ) and sister Immy (1935-92) were also actors.

He had the lead role, as Dr. Hans Reinhardt, in The Black Hole (1979). His few genre roles include: Darkness (2009), Deep Impact (1998)Vampires (1998), The Eighteenth Angel (1998), The Vampyre Wars (1996), The Phantom of the Opera (1983), and The Islands (1983).

Schell married later in life, to Natalya Andreychenko, in 1985 (they divorced in 2005). He is survived by his daughter, Nastassja, from his first marriage, and by his second wife, Iva Mihanovic, who he married last August.